The Electronic Age

At the recent route presentation of the 2011 Giro d’Italia, an all-black Pinarello attracted some attention not only for its usual beauty, but for the parts hung on it: a prototype version of Campagnolo’s long-planned electronic groupset.

It was far from the first time that Campagnolo has showcased an electronic shifting system, but the bike on display at the Giro presentation was the first known sighting of an 11-speed group.

The group, known currently only as “Campy Tech Lab” will be raced this spring by the Movistar team, said Campagnolo North America director Tom Kattus. Riders have tested the group in the past, but a significant change, Kattus said, is that “the whole team will be riding the electronic groupset, and there are no plans to limit the number of races they participate in (with it).”

Separately, the French website Roues Artisanales posted a report two weeks ago alluding to a likely electronic version of Shimano’s Ultegra group for 2012. And there are rumors that Shimano is researching electronic shifting for mountain bikes as well. At Interbike, the tinkerers at Arizona’s Fairwheel Bikes showed off an elegant sequential shifting electronic drivetrain for mountain bikes, comprised of Di2 rear derailleurs and a single shifter cobbled from a Di2 TT bar shifter.

The notable holdout is SRAM. Road Marketing Manager Michael Zellmann told us that the company certainly keeps an eye on the electronic shifting technology, but has no immediate plans to use it. “I don’t want to say we’re in development, but we certainly pay attention,” he said. “Right now there’s a lot of attention given to it, but there are some inherent advantages to mechanical shifting. It’s light, it’s more affordable and it’s something anyone can work on.”

At this point the groups listed above are vaporware. Campagnolo in particular has been slow in the development; it first tested electronic drivetrains with race teams in 2003. The group has been said several times to be ready, but developments have always pushed it off.

Kattus would not commit to a release date, but did say, “We have shown the product to many of our OEM partners for consideration for their model-year 2012 product range.”

Cost will likely continue to be a hurdle to wide acceptance. Campagnolo’s current Super Record 11 group retails for just over $2,600, about the same as mechanical Dura-Ace. But Di2 commands a $2,000 premium over the mechanical version, meaning a Campy E-11 group would likely see similar cost jumps.

In that respect, an electronic Ultegra groupset is more promising, but Shimano employees have told Bicycling in the past year that the challenge is how to contain the costs, and there is an internal debate about whether electronic Ultegra can offer the performance level Shimano wants without substantial price increases.

Ultimately, the success or failure of electronic shifting may come down to its real-world usefulness. Our experience at Bicycling, with several testers riding Di2 extensively, is that electronic shifting is fantastic, but not so transformative a technology that it obseletes mechanical shifting.

For us, the test of a truly transformative technology is something so essential that, once you have it, you can’t imagine living without. Cell phones, suspension forks and the bacon-of-the-month club might fit that description. Electronic shifting? Not yet.